25 March 2016: Released from house arrest (MOLDOVA)
Mihai Calestru and Oleg Savencov, two members of the Unification Church, were both charged with trafficking in human beings and jailed on 30 October 2015. They filed an appeal against the decision made on 28 January 2016 sentencing them to house arrest. However, on 3 February 2016, a Moldovan court denied their appeal.
HRWF and the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe investigated the charges against the two men in January 2016 in Moldova and found them to be baseless. HRWF published a report about the case titled “Religious Freedom: Moldova in the Dock” in 2016 and distributed this report worldwide, including in Moldova. Four days later, Calestru and Savencov were released from house arrest.